Ultimate Compact Gaming PC - 22 Cores & GTX 1080
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,596 words · ~7 min read
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Welcome to the sequel to World's Most Compact Gaming PC, the original of which
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you can check out up there. But unlike most sequels, which are like bigger and
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better, this one is going to be smaller,
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but still better. We are going to be packing a 22 core CPU, 64 gigs of RAM, a
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700 W power supply, and a GTX 1080 all
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into a case about the size of a shoe
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box.
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Intel's Skull Canyon Nook features a sixth generation Core i7 processor and
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Thunderbolt 3. You can learn more at the link in the video
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description. The motherboard was a very carefully considered component for this
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build. The EPC 612D4i that was generously provided by
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ASRock Rack, the server and workstation
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ARM of ASRock is one of the only two MiniITX motherboards capable of housing
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this CPU. The other one is actually made by ASRock Consumer. And while I gave up
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an M.2 two slot for a PCIe SSD along
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with Wi-Fi, onboard audio and really much IO at all. I kept the essentials
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like USB 3 and a PCIe 16X slot for the
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graphics card. And what I gained is something that I had never seen before.
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Quad channel RAM on an ITX
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board. But before we get into that, let's talk CPU. This is the bee's knees,
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the cat's pajamas, the Kobayashi's Maru,
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Intel's Xeon E52699 V4, a
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$4,000 22 core, 44thread monster that boasts 55 megs of
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cache, more than my first computer had RAM. It runs anywhere from 2.2 to 3.6
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GHz using Turbo Boost 2.0 0 technology
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and supports the quad channel DDR4
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memory that I mentioned previously. Speaking of which, we're using some
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pretty badass RAM here. A data makes the
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only qualified 16 gig ECC so RAM for
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this motherboard. So, as a reminder, this is ECC server memory in a sodium or
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usually notebook form factor. And they
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were kind enough to provide us with four sticks of it. So, we could have 64 gigs
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of quad channel DDR4 RAM running at 2133
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MHz in our build. Something that would have been impossible with full size
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DIMs. Though, even with half-length memory sticks, there is not a lot of
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room left for the CPU socket and the cooler that goes on it. We chose the
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Dinatron T318 full copper vapor chamber
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cooler on the advice of Dan cases because the EPC
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612D4i, like its consumer oriented brother, has a narrow ILM mounting hole
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layout, meaning that there are not a lot of options. Since the T318 doesn't
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include a fan, I pilfered a Noctua NF
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A9X14 from another cooler that we had on hand, though you can buy that fan
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separately and set to work building a mounting system for
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it. Oh my god. with borrowed wire hold
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downs and an angle grinder. You can mount the fan with zip ties, but this is
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a little bit more elegant and it ended up working perfectly. for thermal
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compound. Regular viewers will probably notice I'm using quite a bit more than
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usual here. The reason for that is that the 2699 V4 heat spreader is really big.
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And additionally, the die under it, the actual processing part of the processor
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that outputs heat is much larger than a
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typical CPU, meaning that the heat transfer area is much larger. Now, Luke
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demonstrated, and you can check that video out in the corner there, that in a
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large case anyway, cable management won't make much difference to cooling.
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Here, though, everything is packed so tight, I want it absolutely perfect. So,
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the fact that my case does not include any fans whatsoever won't hurt my
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components over the longer term. Why doesn't my case have any cooling fans?
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That's a great question. because there's no room. This is the Dan Cas's A4 SFX.
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At a mere 7.25 L, it is the smallest case on the
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market that can accept a full-size enthusiast gaming graphics card like the
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GTX 1080 that I'm planning to use. thanks to its unique layout that uses a
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flexible PCI Express riser to put the graphics card with a protective plastic
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sheet right behind the motherboard, giving both of them full access to fresh
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air through the perforated side panels. For my boot drive, I'll be using a
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Samsung PM 863 3.84 TB SSD. We are
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giving up some speed compared to a 950 Pro or other NVMe SSD, but we're also
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almost quadrupling the capacity of the largest readily available SSDs at around
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the time of our first compact build. Now, there were some cable management
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challenges, but I was able to hide the USB3 connection and power switch
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connection behind the motherboard. And thanks to one of Silverstone's awesome
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CP11 lowprofile SATA cables, I was able
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to hide that, too. Our power supply is
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yet another piece of amaze balls technology. Last time around, we used a
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full ATX 860 W unit. Now in the tiny
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SFXL form factor, Silverstone was able to squeeze 700 watts with 80 plus
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platinum efficiency and a slim 120 mm
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fan that only spins when system load reaches a certain threshold. The
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included cables are a bit bulky and long, but using Cable Mods configurator,
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I picked up colors I liked and had each cable done to the exact length that I
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needed to reduce bulk and give the system a really clean appearance. even
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with the panels off. A lastminute inclusion was a cable mod widebeam RGB
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LED strip. I actually wasn't sure if I'd
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managed to get that in there since the lighting controller box is a little
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bulky and even the leads that come off of it take up a lot of space in the
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context of a build like this. But I managed to squeeze it in, proving once
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and for all that RGB is the true herpes of modern enthusiast PC building. You
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just can't get rid of it. Leading us finally then to the GTX 1080 that will
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be powering our gaming experience. As the king of the hill GPU at the moment,
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it really needs no introduction. Though, I will say that if you're planning a
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similar build, I would strongly suggest that you opt for a rear blower design
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like a Founders Edition card due to the A4SFX's complete lack of case fans. The
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audio configuration of this machine will rely on the DisplayPort or HDMI output
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of our graphics card. So, make sure that your monitor is equipped for that. Then,
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I plan to use a monitor with a built-in hub or the front USB port with a headset
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like the HyperX Cloud 2. So, that's
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it. Everything is crammed inside with
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barely a cubic inch to spare. So, let's
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go ahead and throw it on the bench and see how this puppy performs. And there
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you have it. She's rock solid stable.
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I'm impressed at how cool the 2699 V4
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runs on that tiny little heat sink. And I am really impressed at how much PC
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hardware has progressed in the last year and how much of it Dan Case has allowed
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us to cram into this tiny little box compared to last time. In summary, we've
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got four more CPU cores, double the RAM
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at double the bandwidth, eight times the storage capacity, a much faster graphics
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card, and to put it in the appropriate context, the Razer Core external GPU
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box, which contains only a graphics card, a power supply, and some IO, is
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about the same size. Wow.
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